Category: State budget

The University of Wisconsin Law School will have to do more with less under Gov. Scott Walker?s state budget proposal. His 2011-13 budget includes a $250 million cut in state aid to the University of Wisconsin System that includes the state?s only public law school.

Much of the attention given to Gov. Scott Walker?s budget initiatives has been directed at the implications to K-12 education. That is understandable given the intensity that teacher?s unions have directed toward limitations on collective bargaining and cuts in state aid to schools.

The Teaching Assistants? Association announced Monday it opposes Chancellor Biddy Martin?s New Badger Partnership and the proposal to separate the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus from the UW System.

UW System leaders praised the Legislative Building Commission after it passed Gov. Scott Walker?s capital budget proposal, which included a new UW-Madison School of Nursing building.

After four weeks of unprecedented legislative maneuvers, protesters sleeping inside and outside the Capitol building and thousands of donated pizza slices from around the world, the bill that would limit collective bargaining rights for public employees was signed by the governor March 11, causing protests to gain momentum.

A Wisconsin judge issued a temporary restraining order Friday blocking the state?s new collective bargaining law from taking effect, raising the possibility that the Legislature may have to vote again to pass the bill.

I fully support the new nursing school on the UW-Madison campus. But I am surprised that Gov. Scott Walker has so much state money to throw around.

Though it was removed from the budget repair bill, Gov. Scott Walker?s plan to privatize Wisconsin?s state-owned power plants remains alive. The controversial plan was the focus of another dustup this week when the State Building Commission approved spending $9 million for upkeep and improvements at the plants prior to their sale ? a move slammed by Democrats. The proposal as it appeared in the budget repair bill called for selling all 37 power plants, including the Charter Street Heating and Cooling Plant on the UW-Madison campus, to private operators with no bids and with no review by the Public Service Commission.

University of Wisconsin administrators are reminding employees not to use their state e-mail accounts and computers for political purposes. A flurry of e-mails last week by UW Colleges and Extension faculty caused university relations director Teri Venker to remind employees to do their political organizing on their own time.

We now have a pretty good idea of what at least one judge thinks of the way Republicans handled the budget-repair bill last week: They probably handled it poorly, according to Dane County Circuit Judge Maryann Sumi.

In 1971, the Wisconsin State Legislature narrowly passed, and Gov. Patrick Lucy signed into law, the merger of the Wisconsin State University system with the University of Wisconsin system.

Blogress Ann Althouse, a university of Wisconsin law professor, is half of the husband-and-wife team that has done a better job than any journalist of reporting on the skirmish in Wisconsin over government union privileges. Yesterday she posted a link to a bizarre threat against her and hubby Laurence Meade that was posted on Scirbd.com:

A Wisconsin state judge temporarily blocked a law that would strip government employee unions of most of their collective-bargaining power.

UW-Madison labor scholar Joel Rogers believes that opponents of Gov. Scott Walker?s anti-union budget bill need to avoid a general strike and turn instead toward recall efforts to anticipate the upcoming redistricting.

A Dane County Judge says there is reason to believe the Legislature may have violated the state open meetings law when it convened a conference committee last week to pass an amended version of the budget repair bill. As a result, Judge Maryann Sumi on Friday morning issued a temporary restraining order stopping the collective bargaining law from being implemented until the court says otherwise.

University of Wisconsin administrators are reminding employees not to use their state e-mail accounts and computers for political purposes.

A Dane County judge issued a restraining order on Friday to block publication of the state?s collective bargaining law.

On Monday, Wisconsin?s Attorney General will take a ruling that blocks the publication of the budget repair law to the appellate court.

Two Democratic lawmakers boycotted a meeting chaired by Gov. Scott Walker Wednesday after they arrived to find it had been closed to roughly a dozen members of the public.

The state Building Commission has approved Republican Gov. Scott Walker?s construction and renovation projects around Wisconsin over the next two years. Projects included include the new Badger Performance Center on the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus to house a variety of programs, an education building at University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire and $360 million for basic repair and maintenance of state buildings statewide. The proposal also includes a new School of Nursing in Madison. That building had been left off the list when it was unveiled last week, but the governor added it on Wednesday morning, WISC-TV reported.

Projects include the new Badger Performance Center on the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus to house a variety of programs, an education building at University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire and $360 million for basic repair and maintenance of state buildings statewide.

Walker added plans for a new $52 million nursing school at UW-Madison and a new $63 million physical education building at UW-River Falls during the commission meeting in the governor?s conference room.

The state Building Commission on Wednesday approved Republican Gov. Scott Walker?s $1.2 billion proposal for construction and renovation projects around Wisconsin over the next two years. The spending request rings in at about 22 percent less than what was spent in the state?s previous two-year budget. Projects include the new Badger Performance Center on the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus to house a variety of programs, an education building at University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire and $360 million for basic repair and maintenance of state buildings statewide. Walker added plans for a new $52 million nursing school at UW-Madison and a new $63 million physical education building at UW-River Falls during the commission meeting in the governor?s conference room.

A new $52.2 million UW-Madison School of Nursing building is still alive after university officials promised to use less taxpayer-supported borrowing to fund the project. The state?s Building Commission approved it Wednesday as part of a slate of $1.2 billion in state building projects, which will now go to the state Legislature for approval with the next two-year budget.

UW-Whitewater faculty members are urging state lawmakers to rescind collective bargaining changes and reconsider a proposal to break-off UW-Madison from the UW System.

Meanwhile, UW-W Chancellor Richard Telfer said leaders across the UW System are signing a separate resolution asking Gov. Scott Walker and other legislators to consider an alternative to separating the flagship campus from the rest of the UW System.

Dane County District Attorney Ismael Ozanne filed a civil complaint Wednesday alleging legislative leaders violated the state?s open meetings law last week when a special committee adopted a bill curbing collective bargaining for most public workers.

The Bradley Center Sports & Entertainment Corp. wanted to borrow $10 million to help maintain and renovate the aging facility.

The University of Wisconsin-Madison wanted to borrow $49.2 million for a new $76.8 million Athletic Department building that would also house parts of the College of Engineering and a sports medicine clinic run by the University of Wisconsin Hospital and Clinics.

In his capital budget, Gov. Scott Walker said no to the Bradley Center and yes to the University of Wisconsin. Both are state facilities.

University of Wisconsin-Madison?s Ken Ono, a highly regarded mathematician who is on a year?s leave at Emory University in Atlanta, says it is unlikely he will return to Madison because he is ?very worried about Wisconsin?s ability to maintain a national-level university.?

Steve Greve is concerned about the proposal to split the state?s flagship campus from the rest of the University of Wisconsin System.

Across Wisconsin, government and school district employees are weighing whether to continue working or get out of public sector employment in light of a new law limiting collective bargaining and employee benefits.

Limnologist Dick Lathrop might know more about Devil?s Lake than anybody else in the world.For nearly 20 years, Lathrop has headed efforts to improve water quality in Wisconsin?s best-known state park.

One unique project, which involves using a nearly mile-long pipeline to suck weed-boosting phosphorus from the lake bottom, has been followed by water researchers nationwide.

Senate Majority Scott Fitzgerald has told Senate Republicans that any votes taken by Senate Democrats in standing committee public hearings and executive sessions will not be counted or recorded.

“Please note that all 14 Democrat senators are still in contempt of the Senate,” Fitzgerald wrote in an email Monday afternoon that was posted on wispolitics.com. “Therefore, when taking roll call votes on amendments and bills during executive sessions, Senate Democrats? votes will not be reflected in the Records of Committee Proceedings or the Senate Journal.”

Gov. Scott Walker recommended approval of about $300 million in building projects for the University of Wisconsin System, but did not include a highly sought-after School of Nursing building for UW-Madison. He recommended that project, valued at $52.2 million ($34.8 in general fund supported borrowing and $17.4 million in gifts and grants) be deferred to the next biennium.

The UW Board of Regents is offering a new proposal designed to build on Governor Walker?s budget.

Gov. Scott Walker is proposing spending $1.1 billion on building projects in Wisconsin over the next two years, nearly 30 percent less than what was spent in the current two-year budget.